Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - Breaking Up Chapter X (Part 1)

Chapter X is only 4 areas long, but I feel that it needs to be broken up a little bit to be properly talked about. The level has some good moments and then it has some bad moments. This seems pretty par for the course on this game.

Things start off again with a Patrick Stewart voiceover. Remember that Witch from the previous level? The one that Zobek wanted Gabriel to kill? Well Gabriel didn't kill the Witch. Instead she helped him. That right there should be a good enough reason to leave her alone. Instead Zobek decides to kill her offscreen. That's right. This feels like a boss fight was cutout of the game, so they just had Zobek kill her by narration. That was pretty pathetic thing to do.

Now when the actual level starts Gabriel is in this purple crystal room. This place looks like it has been ripped straight out of a Final Fantasy game. I was actually excited for this part at first. I loved the look of the level and I was hoping it would stay around. Sadly that is not the case, this room lasts only a few brief steps before Gabriel finds himself standing in a stereotypical wasteland. It's actually bland to look at. I had really been hoping for the color to stay around for a while.

Dragging yourself through this wasteland can be a royal pain. Especially when the camera works against you. And I mean the camera completely works against you. I got stuck in this level for 20 minutes trying to figure out where to go. I eventually had to go to Gamefaqs to get some help. Many thanks to Bkstunt_31 for his fantastic walkthrough. There is this section where the camera seems to point the wrong direction. It's almost a blind jump where you have to go. Once there, it looks like there a dead-end cave in the area (anyone who has played this probably knows what I'm talking about). The cave is not a dead-end. Instead you can actually go to the right, actually, you have to go to the right. This is a mandatory area. But the game doesn't point the way. This isn't a secret area with two fallen knights and a purple crystal. This is a normal room where you have to battle monsters for keys to continue through the level. This is very sloppy design.

The level suffers from a lot of poorly thought-out and poorly executed ideas. Jumps that look possible are not possible. Thinking that Gabriel is on an island when he is actually in the water (which is poisonous). These sorts of things just hold this level back.

The next part of Chapter X wasn't that big of a surprise. I give spoiler warnings at the top of the page so be prepared. This is a boss fight against Pan. Up to this point Pan has been a kind of adviser. He helps Gabriel get to where he needs to be and he gives Gabriel advice wrapped in riddles. A very helpful character. Here, Pan fights Gabriel to the death in an interesting boss fight.

Faun Pan and Pan looking cooler than he has any right to.

Pan normally has a very gentle look about himself. So seeing mighty armored Pan is a bit of a shock and fairly cool looking at the same time. The battle has a nice start, Pan removes Gabriel's magic and forces him to fight without it. I had hoped that this is how the battle would go. Instead over the course of the fight Pan gives Gabriel his magic back, first the Light, then the Shadow.

With the magic restored this fight almost became to easy. Pan keeps talking about how Light and Shadow magic are two sides of the same coin (no duh!). What keeps this fight interesting is that Pan will use Light and Shadow magic. Pan is trying to teach a lesson. Shadow magic is ineffective against Shadow and Light magic is ineffective against light. Surprisingly the two actually work against each other quite well (I'm kidding, it's not a surprise). The final QTE scene against Pan has one of the fastest button presses I have ever seen in a game. Make sure you're ready for it.

Turns out that Pan's death was just a sacrifice that would allow Gabriel to move on. Well go on Gabriel and kill everything else that is in your way. And smile while you do it.